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Sunday, May 12, 2013

Once upon a time there was this company called Disney who had this elite group within them known as the "Disney Princesses". You know who they are, so I'm not going to take the time to list them.

Recently, however, Disney decided to do something really stupid and redesign their leading ladies. Now did they update their wardrobe or hair? No. They let a five year old armed with glitter loose on the princesses and then forced them to go on strict diets of only red apples and happy thoughts. So now, the princesses are ridiculously glittery and thin. And for what purpose?

I understand updating characters to make them relevant in today's world. Many companies and characters undergo these modernizations in order to maintain their competitive foothold in the entertainment industry. But it's not like the princesses needed modernized. The first Disney princess was Snow White. She has looked exactly the same since the Fifties and her character has yet to fade into obscurity. Thousands of little girls, heck, maybe even millions of little girls, dress up every year as the OLD Disney princesses. Now their costumes are going to come with a bedazzler and a corset.

Besides the fact that glitterfying even the non-fem princesses is insulting to their characters and goes against the whole "stay true to yourself" thing, advertising the princesses as thinner could end up being harmful to certain members of the Disney Princess audience, especially those who aren't, say, a toothpick. My showing young girls that average sized Cinderella isn't good enough to enjoy a consistent look, Disney is showing that if you're not a size zero and covered in glitter, you aren't good enough.

Now considering while I was growing up one of the biggest things Disney plugged away at was positive self image, I find it incredibly ironic that they would market a group of princesses that would show little girls that being yourself is okay as long as you're a size two.